Chief Product Officer (New York City area)

Whiting Consulting is looking for a Chief Product Officer (CPO) for our client. This person would be responsible for product vision and strategy, product design and development, and product marketing and management within a fast growing, innovative company serving Fortune 500, consumer-focused marketers.

Responsibilities

Identify evaluate, and explore opportunities for the growth and development of the organization on a continuous basis.

Lead all product lifestyle management initiatives for all business functions. Integrate all product management and product marketing function.

Ensure that our product strategy supports the evolving need of our customers. Design the process for creating short-range and long-range strategic plans, with a clear vision and direction of the functions and features that need to be built.

Capture market needs and define responsibilities for capabilities, features, and performance and interface design with client and promote product benefits, capabilities, and value propositions through relationships with key customers.

Deliver significant increases in revenue through new products, improved quality, and customer-driven innovations.

Determine user behavior and customer focus and how this will integrate and drive the technology of the organization.

Create compelling consumer experiences that leverage the intersection of technology, design and media.

Work with other leadership to align product strategy with corporate objectives. Coordinate delivery between sales, technology, development, operations, creative, marketing and community management.

Assist with the development and management of the Company Brand. Oversee website development and site strategy.

Support assessment and measurement, creating metrics to measure progress in operations, planning and other sustainability benchmarks to attain year over year revenue growth.

Foster an environment of mutual trust including personal credibility and trust between and among stakeholders.

Conduct risk assessments and analysis.

Capture market needs and define responsibilities for capabilities, features, and performance and interface design with client and promote product benefits, capabilities, and value propositions through relationships with key customers.

Support sales through leading development and maintenance of technical excellence.

Qualifications and Skills

At least 15 years of business experience including product management, sales and/or marketing, strategy design and development and partnership management.

Has a strong marketing and media background working with Fortune 500 corporate clients and prospects.

Is a capable speaker, excellent communicator and accomplished internal and external evangelist.

Has an aptitude for accurately and continuously collecting market appetite from clients and prospects and quickly converting that demand into enhanced, scalable, relevant product offering(s).

Can expertly manage diverse a team specialists focused on online product design; product management; sales-focused and strategic marketing & PR; measurement and analytics; audience development and retention.

Is a charismatic leader by nature and a skilled consensus driver in practice, capable of galvanizing internal technology, logistics and sales personnel to deliver evolving products to a fast changing marketplace.

Excels at evaluating business opportunities in both strategic and practical economic terms and is superb at communicating these opportunities to peers and to the CEO and Board of Directors.

Knowledge of product evolution both internally and externally.

Understanding of next-generation platforms and technology services and consumer-driven applications.

Understanding of the interrelationships among, quality, cost, resource allocation and accountability.

Knowledge of the social media market. Familiarity with business performance of sites and site performance data.

Able to see the big picture and bring ideas from within the company as well as from the client together.

Be able to create an organizational culture that facilitates individual motivation, commitment, achievement and growth.

Art Director / Designer (New York City area)

Whiting Consulting is looking for an Art Director and Designer for our client. As Art Director/Designer, you will be responsible for conceiving and designing all the event communications including host acquisition ads, landing pages, emails, and various promotional media that will successfully market our sponsors products or services. You will also enhance the company’s host and guests’ online experiences. You’ll be a part an event team and collaborate with sales, producers, and copywriters to make the company’s events a success for both their clients and the hosts.

Responsibilities

• Actively participate in event creative, production and client meetings.
• Conceive and create all the marketing elements of company events using client and outside resources.
• Dev-prep all Landing Pages and Emails
• Effectively communicate client/brand marketing messaging to the event hosts and guests.
• Present, clearly explain, and defend event deliverables/concepts to clients and team members.
• Innovate. Consistently push the creative envelope of all our event communications.
• Obsess about the overall look, feel and flow of our sponsor’s marketing messages.
• Facilitate collaboration. Actively participate with sales and producers to help bridge would be gaps between great events and client demands.

Education

• BA or BS degree.

Experience

• 3 + years experience working in advertising, promotion, and interactive design.
• Proven success creating memorable, distinctive and effective marketing communications for the web and other media using Adobe CS, Flash and AfterEffects.
• Online Portfolio of Ads, Promotions, Landing Pages, Emails, Banner ads, etc.

Required Skills

• Advertising, promotion, marketing and problem solving skills.
• Strong desire to work as a key player to a fun, cross-functional and growing team.
• Passion for solving client and user problems in new and interesting ways.
• Eagerness to learn, share and apply new skills and trends.
• Insatiable thirst for staying on top of design trends and emerging technology.
• Thoroughness and a belief that there is greatness in the details.
• Good written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to analyze, define and complete tasks with minimal direction/supervision.
• Mastery of design software — Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, AfterEffects, etc.
• Dev prep technical experience.
• Preferred Skills
• Zest for social media marketing.
• Sense of humor and irony.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

As a full fledged football widow, I hear those words screamed by Hank Williams Jr and my husband every Monday night during the season. Married to a dedicated Buffalo Bills fan, football is religion and our weekend activities are planned around what games are on TV. It’s a phenomenon that I do not really appreciate, and count down the weeks to our freedom. What I do appreciate is the amount of time and energy coaches and the players put forth in preparation for a game from week to week.

If you look at their model it is one we should embrace from a hiring perspective. These coaches and players, week in and week out, review countless hours of game film. They study the competition, know their every move, put together an extensive game plan and communicate it to the whole organization so when they are on the field on game day they know how to execute. They are as proactive as possible to win. Most importantly, they ensure they have their BEST PLAYERS on the field and have a plan to put those players in a position to succeed versus the competition.

When it comes to hiring within organizations, I think companies are more on the defensive than the offensive. They are reactive vs. proactive. They do not have a game plan when it comes to hiring. They go out and start recruiting without taking a step back and thinking about what needs to happen.

I encourage my clients to be as proactive as possible when it comes to hiring. Companies will yield a better hire to meet their overall career goals if they have a clear, thought-out game plan. What can we do to be more proactive?

The first step is to put together a hiring plan that can evolve over time. Look 3 to 6 months out at your business plan. Determine if you have the right resources in place to meet your deliverable to your clients. If not, then determine the gaps. Can you move resources around within the company? If not, determine where you need to hire. Once the need is identified, think about what this person needs to accomplish to be successful, talk to people within your organization to make sure you are all on the same page and then put together a complete job description. I know what you’re thinking, but candidates actually read these! This might seem like it will take more time, but will yield significant time and savings when it comes to avoiding hiring the wrong person for the job.

There have been many times when I have been called to help an organization with a hiring need and they do not have this game plan in place, we spend several days or sometimes weeks looking for the wrong candidate or resource. The impacts of this are far-reaching indeed: Hiring the wrong resource, lost productivity, lost revenue, wasted time interviewing the wrong candidates that would not fit the role if hired, etc. I read in a recent study that 59% of the managers surveyed believed that less than half of all candidates they interviewed were qualified for the job (eBullpen, LLC).

So the next time you have a hiring need:
1) Put together a strategy – look at the skills needed, and first determine who in your current talent pool might have those skills.
2) Put together a resources plan for the next 3 to 6 months so you have a funnel of candidates for your upcoming positions and you can be more proactive vs reactive in hiring.
3) Develop a complete job description for the skills that you need, make sure everyone is on board the first time around.
4) Communicate to your company what you are looking for so you can encourage employee referrals and ensure that the interview team knows what to look for when they meet with a candidate.
5) Execute the plan by engaging a person that specializes in hiring so you can target the right resource.

Companies need to remember that people are their best resources. Hiring top performers can increase revenue and productivity by 40 to 67% over an average performer (McKinsey & Co). Having the wrong person in place can jeopardize your ability to maximize your success and reach your goals. Ask yourself: Are You Ready For Some Hiring?

Is The Customer Experience Dead?

Is The Customer Experience Dead?

When is the last time you made a purchase or had a business interaction and you were blown away? We as a culture are more apt to talk about what went wrong with a purchase or dealings with a company than what went right.

As companies continue to cut costs and employees get added responsibilities, there is the possibility that the customer experience will suffer.

I love to shop. It’s my biggest vice. Before the recession when I went into a store no one said “Hi” and you would practically have to stand on your head to get attention. Now, since retail sales are so low that experience has changed. Sales associates flock to me like moths to the flame. But, is it genuine? Will it endure when the economy turns around? We’ll see.

Several weeks ago I was invited for a lunch lesson on cosmetics; another one of my vices! It took place at my friend’s day spa, Waterlily, www.waterlilybeauty.com. The owners, Beth and Craig Gamble, spend a tremendous amount of time working with their staff on the customer experience. Not a single need goes unsatisfied when you are there. They make you feel like a queen and they ensure you leave with an experience that will bring you back for more.

I ask myself, “How do they do this so well?” I think the answer lies in the Gambles teaching their employees to be genuine. It is prevalent with every employee and every interaction; whether it’s being greeted by Brie when you walk in the front door or when you are being escorted into the calming quiet room for a bit of mental down time. I cannot help but feel that these employees truly care about my experience. That type of care comes from the top and comes with constant reinforcement.

I have learned a lot from Beth and Craig over the years about how to make the customer experience a top priority for my company, and it starts by being genuine. They also talk about “Rolling out the Red Carpet” for their customers. In doing research for this blog I came across a Blogger by the name of Bruce Temkin, he is a Researcher for Forrester. His blog is called Experience Matters, www.experiencematters.wordpress.com . He has great stats about how organizations that embrace a positive customer experience yield more revenue as well as more loyal customers.

Take a moment and walk in your client’s shoes. How do they feel the moment they start an interaction with your organization through completion of the sales cycle? Are their needs met before they ask? Do they feel like a king or queen when they leave the building or hang up the phone? As Bruce states: “Customer service attracts loyal customers.”

If you are ever in Rochester, NY check out Waterlily or see them on line at www.waterlilybeauty.com and walk their red carpet.

Who Is Your Next Customer?

When your company is hiring you have an opportunity to meet and exchange information with many people about your organization. In many ways this can be considered another marketing channel for your business. Have you ever taken a step back and thought about a potential employee’s experience with your company based on their perceptions from the interviewing process? This can be a VERY valuable exercise.

Often times, candidates are frustrated by the “black hole” of applying for positions or going in for an interview and never hearing back. Think about the last interview you went on when that happened to you. How did that make you feel?

I was reading a great article in The New York Times called Be Nice to Job Seekers. (They’re Shoppers, Too.) Preoccupations – Be Nice to Job Candidates. (They’re Also Consumers.) – NYTimes.com. The article spoke about two very well known brands that had made recent changes to their recruitment process. Both Southwest Airlines and Nabisco identified that they needed to treat candidates rather special because in the case of Nabisco, “Everyone eats cookies.”

When looking at your recruitment process you need to consider it as another channel to push your brand out into the marketplace. Companies that can identify this and make slight changes in the process will see many benefits in the long run.

Find a way to take that extra time and respond to that candidate and provide feedback. Going that extra mile will stand out in that person’s mind and you will never know when they could be your next client.

I know first hand that this process does work, I have been fortunate to have candidate’s become clients and it is a very rewarding experience.

Inside Sales Manager (New York City)

Whiting Consulting is currently looking for an Inside Sales Manager to join our client’s Sales team. In this high impact, critical role, you will be responsible for driving qualified leads and building the pipeline for the sales organization through teleprospecting and other demand generation activities. As a key component of the sales process, you will have high-visibility with senior management.

Responsibilities

Driving, creating, and cultivating leads and building a sustainable pipeline for the U.S. sales organization.

Driving demand through focused telephone campaigns, seminars, Web casts, industry events, and other innovative demand generation activities.

Understanding, leveraging, and working in all aspects of the demand generation process, including extensive cold calling, lead qualifying, lead nurturing, and appointment setting.

Discovering, identifying, and uncovering potential prospects and their associated needs/drivers.

Understanding and effectively articulating the features, benefits, and business value, represented by our client.

Working closely with all members of the account teams.

Calling into new and assigned accounts within a designated geographic territory.

Cross-selling and up-selling to generate new business.

Meeting or exceeding revenue quota goals on a quarterly and annual basis.

Documenting the lead generation process to enable optimization of lead generation techniques.

Maintaining a positive, professional ”total customer service” attitude throughout the organization.

Requirements

5+ years of Business-to-Business telesales/teleprospecting experience with proven results in a quota-oriented environment.

Experience with driving leads and building pipeline for sales in a technology environment.

An understanding of technology and technological innovations.

Account management experience and relevant experience in sales for the technology industry.

Excellent knowledge of demand generation strategies and conveying business value.

Strong judgment and initiative in determining sources of information and in selection of significant data.

Must have experience making high volume outbound calls per day.

A thorough understanding and experience necessary to solve day-to-day problems with exemplary problem resolution skills.

Effective time management practices to properly support organizational activities.

Outstanding communications skills both oral and written with all levels within an organization.

Clear and effective phone skills as well as courtesy and tact are essential.

Strong skills in the areas of interviewing, meeting facilitation and customer service.

Excellent teleprospecting and selling skills.

Teamwork and results oriented individual.

Detail-oriented, enthusiastic and a quick learner.

Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience in an IT, business sales related field.

Proficient in Microsoft Word and Excel.

Knowledge of SalesForce.com a plus.

Business travel of approximately 10% or less yearly is expected.

Experience in BSM, Performance Management, Application Management or Systems Management –an advantage.

Recruitfest’09

This week I traveled to Toronto for the second time within a week. First was to see U2 – totally awesome concert! It is a beautiful City fairly close to Upstate NY. I normally do not attend conferences, but learned of Recruitfest from Twitter. Then in having conversations with @jennydevaughn – she encouraged me to go, so I thought I would give it a try!
This was an “unconference,” described as an open forum to exchange thoughts and ideas with fellow peers and thought leaders within the industry. The conference took place at Trinity College, which is in a beautiful area in the heart of Toronto and built on beautiful old architecture that just made you feel smart.
I attended two sessions on day one. The first was with Jenny DeVaughn dealing with social media. Jenny is an excellent presenter, full of energy and passion about the topic at hand. We spoke about the movement from Web 1.0 to 2.0. She also talked about how to be effective with your messaging and shared some great tools of the trade to help you be more productive and save time, like leveraging RSS feeds for searches and grader.com from hubspot which is a free tool to leverage ROI.
We learned about the evolution of recruiting and how social media is a key player, and how as a recruiter you need to encourage your organization to allow you to engage in this space and help push out your corporate brand. My biggest takeaway from the conversation is that social media is no longer just about content; it’s about CONVERSATION and ENGAGEMENT! You must not be afraid to enter the conversation. Engage with your audience and build your community.
I also attended a session with Julia Stone and Jerry Albright. This was a great conversation about the 50 Principles of Recruiting today. Though we only covered a couple during my time with them, it was an excellent exchange of information and ideas from veterans within the industry and folks that were just entering recruiting. We spoke about how to approach a passive candidate, and how you have to make the conversation your own, what works for one person might not necessarily work for another. The discussion then turned to how in these tough economic times we need to show our clients our value, and not lower our rates. We also discussed the importance of follow up and follow through with clients, as well as setting appropriate expectations with them around recruiting process and timing. Overall it was an extremely valuable session.
All is all it was a great time full of excellent conversation. It was great to put a faces to some names and take social networking to the next level. Most of us knew of each other through Twitter but never really had spoken before real time. What this conference did for me is exactly was social media is supposed to do; take the conversation to the next level….which is face to face!

Social Networking: My Two Cents

 

 Everywhere I turn nowadays there are articles about social networking: passing fad or here to stay? In my humble opinion it is definitely here to stay. So much so, in fact, that I cannot picture my work environment without it. I am aware that its impact on the recruiting industry is much deeper than others. For example, a friend of mine works for an information services firm that was ready to fire one of their associates for blogging about their products and services without getting legal’s approval. This seems insane to me because it is so much a part of my daily routine. With that said, I still speak with many people who are either not leveraging the tools at all or not using them to their fullest potential. Here are my Big 4 reasons for using social networking:

 

Networking: This is the obvious one, of course. As a recruiter, social networking is like Christmas everyday! You do not need to be looking for another job. You could be perfectly happy in your current role and the great thing is recruiters can use social networking to find YOU for your next great role. It also helps us recruiters expand our network on a daily basis. This is vital to my success.

Communication: Once you have built your network, these tools are the best way to keep your network informed of what you are doing. As a recruiter, I am able to tell people what type of searches I am working on and that information gets passed on to many different networks!

Education: I love Twitter for this area. My daily routine is to first check my blackberry (of course) and then to hop on Twitter and see what is going on in the world. What did I miss while I was sleeping? I love to see what people are suggesting I read and what new tricks of the trade seem to be working or simply what is happening in the world of recruiting.

Branding: Social networking is THE way to build your brand online. Do not underestimate the power of the exposure you will get by using these tools. Be thoughtful in the information you share and how you want to be perceived by others.

Do not be afraid to dive in and give social networking a try. You will quickly see the benefits it can bring from both a personal and professional perspective. I think once you start, you will be hard pressed to stop!

Social Media and Your Stage Presence

Shakespeare said “all the world’s a stage” and social media has become the newest place to see your name in lights. Whether you’re a professional working for an organization, flying solo as a consultant or currently seeking your next role, its worth considering where exactly you want to make regular appearances. How you perform is up to you.

One Network Serves as a Baseline
Consider a service like LinkedIn to be your baseline for professional networking and communications. With over 40 million members, LinkedIn is the largest and most diverse network in the U.S. While smaller or more specialized networks such as Plaxo.com, Spoke.com or Xing.com may fit your immediate needs, consider joining them in terms of your long term business and career goals as well as the time and effort you’ll need to expend to update multiple profiles. In any case, your profile is your business card – make each word count but include relevant details of your expertise and experience. Also include a photo! It helps people recognize who you are.

Create a Hierarchy of Connections
Facebook can be a valuable channel for building your online brand with professional colleagues who evolve into friends. It’s an opportunity to share more of yourself – your sense of humor, values, lifestyle and friends. For this reason, be conscious of the content you share on your Facebook page. Understand the levels of access you can give connections and as a rule of thumb, don’t share anything you wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing with a recruiter or potential client. They will be looking.

Commit to a Communication Plan
As a marketing professional, I use LinkedIn as a primary channel to focus on those business groups or conversations that matter to me. Good networking isn’t about self-promotion; it’s about building relationships based on shared interests and expertise. Avoid the temptation to send out messages asking for job referrals or blanket connection requests. It won’t help you build relationships.

Ready for a bigger stage? You may want to expand to start your own group within LinkedIn, launch a blog or open a twitter account. Whichever channel you commit to using, consistency and timeliness is important. A brilliant discussion followed by weeks of silence will do little to keep contacts aware and interested in your point of view. If you want to start a blog, there’s a volume of advice available on how to do it right. One resource I find helpful is hubspot.com. In any case, launch your blog with your own domain (blog/yourname.com) rather than a subdomain of a blog service (blog/typepad.com) to ensure you’re optimized for search engines. All of the blog services offer this feature at a small cost.

Social Media Tools to Organize
There are a number of tools to manage your channels of communication and alert you to your colleagues’ activities with new applications appearing daily. I like FriendFeed.com which will establish an easily viewable log of where and when colleagues have posted on a particular network, Ping.fm which will update multiple networks including your blog posts and TweetDeck.com which streamlines your Twitter activities and enhances sharing capabilities. Check out SlideShare.net to see how other individuals and companies are leveraging social media channels.

Social media doesn’t eliminate the need for getting out and networking in person. It can however, help recall a conversation and solidify the first impression your contact carried away from your meeting. It can also help you reach individuals you wouldn’t otherwise have the chance to connect with and build awareness of your expertise within the community. As for learning your lines, that’s something you have to practice on your own. And take heart – improvising is what keeps it fun.

Patricia Smith consults with clients on marketing strategies and communication initiatives in the B2B market space. She has diverse corporate and entrepreneurial experience in U.S. and International markets guiding the development of brand strategies, launching new products and services, building business cases and developing results-driven marketing programs. Ideas and travel are her passions.

You can contact Patricia at psmith@makingwordscount.net , tweet her at @octopus or visit her at http://www.linkedin.com/in/pasmith17.

Senior Vice President of Sales

Whiting Consulting is looking for a senior vice president of sales to join our customer’s organization. In this role the candidate will maintain a sales culture focused on driving revenue, profitability, and recurring clients. The SVP of Sales will also be responsible for aggressively-growing the revenues and profitability through the development and implementation of sales strategies and the management of the current and future sales force. In addition, this individual will work closely with other senior managers to ensure a smooth transition and appropriate sales involvement during the execution of the client deliverables.

Responsibilities:

• Assist the sales team in their ability to accelerate the sales cycle to achieve sales and revenue goals established by management.
• Implement processes and systems to build a dynamic world class sales culture.
• Operate across multiple product platforms.
• Oversee the strategy to penetrate key clients.
• Develop sales strategies and plans that include the functional support of the executive team, as required, and work closely with the management team on the execution of that strategy.
• Develop and manage sales budgets and oversee the development and management of internal operating budgets.
• Plan and conduct sales training programs.
• Negotiate agreements with major clients.
• Conduct business reviews in order to monitor relationship, re-affirm strategies linked to needs and steward the business.
• Work closely with other senior managers to ensure a smooth transition and appropriate sales involvement during the execution of the client deliverables.

Requirements:

• 10 years of executive sales and sales management experience in Media, Marketing and Advertising sales.
• Current experience in a social media culture and superb relationship development and management skills.
• Knowledge of structuring sales quota goals and revenue expectations.
• Professional written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to roll-up your sleeves and effectively deliver repeatable business results in an entrepreneurial environment.
• Ability to craft value proposition around the business.
• Knowledge of contracting and negotiating.
• Strong team player capable of partnering with other business divisions to deliver on sales commitments.
• Willingness to travel and demonstrate confidence and the ability to work in a fast paced environment.
• International experience dealing with Europe and Asia would be preferable.
• Travel as needed to client and prospective clients located within the USA, and anticipation of clients and prospective clients in international locations